Ready? Here it is:
How I Learnt Spanish in Less Than a Year
Good evening fellow Toastmasters, tonight I’m
going to tell you about the time I learnt Spanish in less than a year. Picture this: it was near the end of year 9. I had
just moved to a new high school in NSW, coming all the way from QLD. I was
excited about the new school, because it was a creative arts high school and
that was what I was into.
I spoke to the principal about what subjects I
wanted to do. I told her I’d love to study Spanish, but she said I could not do
it because the others in year 9 had been studying it for 2 years and there
would be no way I could catch up with them. Okay, I thought. Fair enough. So I
chose to study dance instead of Spanish.
Unfortunately, my dance class wasn’t much fun and
the girls in the class were in all in a clique together – the popular girls- so
they weren’t very friendly. One girl in
particular liked to point out the fact that I sucked at dancing.
One day, I just happened to be in the Spanish room
working on something for another subject when I casually started counting in
Spanish, reading off a chart on the wall.
The Spanish teacher, who was in the room at the time said: “oh, you
still remember Spanish” . “No, I said, I’ve never studied it”. Hmmm… perhaps
this was a sign I thought, that I should change subjects and do Spanish.
So, the next year, during year 10 I decided to change subjects: from dance to
Spanish. I knew it was a difficult task, since the others in the class had been
studying it for many years and I was just a beginner. Also, the school
principal was against the idea.
However, I had two good things going for me.
Firstly, the vice principal knew me and liked me (for some reason), and
secondly, my step mum just happened to have a master’s degree in Spanish
linguistics. So, I managed to write a letter to the vice principal begging him
that I change subjects, and added that if I needed help with anything, my step
mum had a degree in Spanish so she could help me.
Well, it worked.
I was able to change subjects to Spanish. It was good, because I had friends in that
class so I knew I wouldn’t be excluded from things.
Our Spanish class had a familiar phrase which we
always used when we greeted each other, even outside of class. It was: hola,
que tal? Which means: hi, how are you? So none of us in that class will ever
forget that phrase.
I learnt
Spanish mainly by listening to Enrique Iglesias’s Spanish songs, and then either listening to the English
translation of the song, or by translating it myself using the dictionary.
My studying of Spanish went well beyond just
learning the language.
In that class, I also became interested in the
Spanish speaking countries such as Spain
and South America – the physical landscape,
and in their cultural values and customs.
My friend Jeff and I picked up a love of Latin
American music from that class – we both started liking Enrique Iglesias and
Shakira and other Latin American artists which I still like today.
We also found a love for Latin American dances
such as salsa, thankfully there was no one around to tell us we sucked at it.
During that year I learnt also about traditional
dishes from both Spain and South America. I
discovered Paella, which is a chicken and rice and seafood dish, which I still
love, and is one of my favourite foods.
I graduated from year 10 with a mark of 86 percent
in Spanish, the second highest mark in the class. Oh, and by the way, I didn’t
ever need my stepmum’s help with any of it.
So, in short, I had a fun time in my year 10
Spanish class. I studied hard, although it wasn’t that hard really because it
was mostly fun. And the principal’s
probably still kicking herself – she couldn’t believe someone could learn 3
year’s worth of Spanish – in less than a year.
It was a pretty terrible speech. As you can see, there's not much structure to it (refer to my previous post for an example of a simple and effective structure). I didn't bother with structure for this speech because technically you don't have to (apart from having a clear opening, body and conclusion) for your first speech. Structure does, however, help.
Notice I had a clear opening sentence: "Good evening fellow Toastmasters, tonight I’m
going to tell you about the time I learnt Spanish in less than a year". The opening sentence gives everyone a good understanding of what's to follow.
If I had written the opening paragraph properly, I would've probably continued with an overview of what I would be talking about (without completely giving the speech away) like this:
"You know the feeling when someone tells you that you can't do something but you do it anyway and feel proud to prove them wrong? Well that's what happened to me. Soon you'll hear about my adventures at highschool and how I ended up studying Spanish despite the advice of the school principal".
Then, I would launch into my story (this is the body of the speech).
In my speech, I gave a powerful concluding sentence that linked back to my opening sentence:
"And the principal’s probably still kicking herself – she couldn’t believe someone could learn 3 year’s worth of Spanish – in less than a year".
"And the principal’s probably still kicking herself – she couldn’t believe someone could learn 3 year’s worth of Spanish – in less than a year".
And there you have it! Provided you can differentiate your opening paragraph from the body of the speech and give a clear concluding paragraph (or just a sentence if you're slack like me), then you'll have an Ice Breaker-worthy speech. Bonus points if you can link your conclusion to the intro.
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